Blackberry Slump

Blackberry Slump! Blackberries cooked on the stovetop with sugar and lemon, topped with dumplings.

Photography Credit:
Elise Bauer

Have you ever heard of a dessert called a slump? The Joy of Cooking defines a slump as “steamed fruit topped with dumplings”.

I first encountered the idea of a slump in a cookbook about the cooking of Newport, Rhode Island, in the first chapter on colonial cooking.

Apparently, this dessert goes back to colonial days. It’s synonymous with a “grunt”, and which word you use, slump or grunt, depends on the locale. In Rhode Island, slump is used. In Massachusetts, grunt is more common.

Etymology aside, what’s cool about slumps is that they are like cobblers, except they’re made on the stove-top instead of the oven, and they have dumplings instead of biscuits.

Yes, berries cooked with sugar, topped with dumplings. (You should have seen my dad’s face when I explained the dessert I made for him. The way he lit up when the word “dumpling” was mentioned was priceless.)

This recipe uses blackberries because that’s what I happened to have, but you could use any berry. Traditionally in New England native blueberries are used. I do recommend serving this with cream or vanilla ice cream. Blackberries can be quite tart, which the cream can help cut.

Blackberry Slump Recipe

This recipe uses blackberries, but you could easily use any berry you would like, such as blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries.

Ingredients

Dumplings:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp butter

1/3 cup whole milk

Berries:

4 cups fresh or frozen (defrosted and drained) blackberries

1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (depending on how sweet your berries and how sweet you would like your slump to be)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1/3 cup water

Whipping cream or vanilla ice cream for topping

Method

1 Make the dumplings: In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.

Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the flour. Using a pastry cutter, two knives, or your clean hands, cut the butter into the flour until the flour resembles a coarse meal.

Add the milk all at once and stir until the flour is just moistened. Handling the dough as little as possible, form into a ball. Set aside.

2 Heat berries with sugar, cinnamon, lemon, water until boiling: In a 2-qt saucepan, add the berries, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, lemon zest, and water. Heat until boiling, stirring a few times so that the berries are well coated with the sauce.

3 Add chunks of dumpling dough: Once the berry mixture is boiling, tear off spoonful chunks from the dough ball and drop onto the fruit around the edges of the pot. You should have enough dough for 6 dumplings.

4 Cover and simmer: Cover the pot and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 25 minutes, without peeking at the dumplings.

Place dumplings in serving bowls and top with berries. Serve with cream or ice cream. Serve hot or chilled.

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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.

well i followed everything exact, but double’d. Used Blue Bonnet butter specifically.
Also compensated the berries with what was in my freezer and used 8 cups of fresh frozen cranberries, Instead of zing of the lemon i added pineapple juice as well as 1> 8 oz can of crushed pineapple. was absolutely amazing for cranberry enthusiasts.

I am looking for this recipe for my sister-in-law. Her father used to make something like this when she was a little girl, almost 40 years ago. She remembers the blackberries being thickened. Does this just happen naturally with the pectin in the berries?

I was looking for a recipe to use my leftover rhubarb for and I stumbled on this. I wasn’t sure what to expect but this was way beyond any expectations I had, it was so easy and soooo tasty! I used four cups of rhubarb and strawberries, and 3/4 flour with 1/4 oats in the dough but other than that followed the recipe. Dumplings were perfect, which was shocking for how easy they were. Thank you for the recipe, I’ll be making it again for sure!

My oven isn’t working so I went searching for a good stove-top dessert for friends who just adopted a baby. So glad I found this one! I used the “berries and cherries” frozen fruit from Trader Joe’s, coconut sugar, and gluten-free flour. Added butter to the berries, and vanilla. Thank you for this recipe — I will make it for years to come because it is so simple and delicious!

These were delicious and different. I grew up in New England, and had never heard of a culinary slump or a grunt. Since I am currently without an oven, these blackberry dumplings were just perfect and came out fine with ww flour. Thanks, Elise!

This was so warm and delicious, and smelt amazing as it was cooking on the stove. I made it with frozen mixed berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries). Thanks for the recipe — a real keeper!

I am so glad you posted this recipe. I grew up eating this, however my grandma used to call it Blackberry Mush. Doesn’t sound appetizing but this slump is exactly what it was. I loved it and can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks again for posting!

My mother (who was English) used to make a dessert that she called a boiled pudding….she mixed up some sort of plain dough…put fruit or jam in the middle and wrapped it up in a cloth….and boiled in on top of the stove.

When it was untied and served she put a warm lemon sauce over it. We happened to live in northern RI at that time….but she never made a slump (she may have called me a “slump” or accused me of “being in a slump” if I seemed lacking in ambition.